Lawmakers will have their hands full during the next two weeks, casting their last votes before the House sends their surviving bills to the Senate and vice versa.

On Wednesday, March 8, the House will look at everything from groundwater to emergency contraception pills. HB 1492, which would grant immunity to pharmacists who refuse to dispense emergency contraceptive pills, got a thumbs down from the House Judiciary Committee. The majority of the committee said the bill is unnecessary because current law, passed during the 2005 session, “states very clearly the responsibility and the duties of the pharmacists in dispensing this pill.”

Also up for a vote on March 8 is HB 1609, which would require impact studies to be part of the permitting process for large groundwater withdrawals. If the measure passes, the state Department of Environmental services would be required to establish a program to estimate future water needs of communities where groundwater is slated to be withdrawn.

However, the day to watch this week is Thursday, March 9, when two of this year’s most controversial bills come up for a vote.

First up is HB 1177, the bill that would ban smoking in restaurants and cocktail lounges. Rep. Sheila Francoeur (R-Hampton) is the bill’s sponsor. She called the measure “pro-health and pro-business.”
“I think we as a state have an obligation to provide safe and healthy workplaces for employees, in this case, employees in restaurants and cocktail lounges,” she said in a recent interview with The Wire.
The bill received wide support from the Commerce Committee, which recommended 14-3 that the bill pass. However, a minority report issued by the committee recommends the bill be killed and states, “Business owners know best how to satisfy their customers and they, rather than the government, should be allowed to decide whether to allow, restrict or ban smoking in their establishments.”

Previous attempts to pass a smoking ban in 2000 and 2002 failed; however, this time there is no serious opposition to the bill and the New Hampshire Lodging and Restaurant Association has taken a neutral stance on the issue. But even if the smoking ban bill falters, smokers may also face further regulations from another piece of smoking-related legislation. HB 1558 would allow cities and towns to establish their own smoking regulations, in addition to state laws regarding smoking. The Municipal and County Government Committee voted 12-3 in favor of the bill, with supporters stating that towns and cities should have local control over smoking regulations. However, opponents of the bill say there’s no need for state or local governments to interfere with private businesses.

Even bigger than the proposed smoking ban will be Thursday’s vote on CACR 34, the proposed amendment to the state constitution that would define marriage as the union between one man and one woman. Hundreds of people trekked to Representative’s Hall in January when the House Judiciary Committee held a public hearing on the bill. Most who testified spoke against the bill. That testimony seemed to presage the committee’s overwhelming 14-7 recommendation to kill the amendment.
The committee’s majority report offered a particularly scathing critique of the amendment.

“Traditionally, the state constitution has been perceived as a protector for minority rights, and the idea that an amendment would take away a minority right would seem to be an anathema,” the report stated. “CACR 34 is clearly discriminatory to a particular class of people. The majority of the committee feels that this ‘House of the People’ should not enshrine discrimination of any kind in our (state) constitution.”

Supporters have said passing the amendment in the legislature would allow voters to weigh in on the issue. However, majority members of the committee said the people have already spoken by electing the Legislature.

Meanwhile, the committee’s minority report stressed the need for legislative action before “judicial activism” changes the definition of marriage.

“If you withhold from the people the permission to vote on this important issue, the courts will force same sex marriage upon our constitution, just like Massachusetts,” according to the minority report. The bill needs a two-thirds super majority among the 400 House members to pass.

Also up for a vote on March 9 is HB 1649, which would include the term “unborn child” in the definition of “another” in first and second-degree murder, manslaughter and negligent homicide charges. The Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee voted 8-5 against the bill, with the committee’s majority reporting that the bill would unintentionally create “personhood for a fetus.” However, members of the committee’s minority say the bill is “pro-woman” and merely recognizes the “tremendous loss a pregnant woman sustains with the loss of her child.”

Also set for a vote is HB 1548, which would permit landlords to evict tenants once a lease has expired. State laws currently do not list the expiration of a lease among the reasons that a landlord can lawfully evict a tenant. The House Judiciary Committee voted 13-7 against the amendment, with the majority of members arguing the bill would “upset the delicate balance struck by this Legislature in crafting current (landlord-tenant) law.” However, the committee’s minority report states, “There can hardly be better cause for ending a tenancy (than) the fact that the lease has expired.”